In an interview with Talk Business & Politics, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said he believes he has exceeded expectations with his campaign.
Despite his low polling numbers and fundraising numbers, Hutchinson said he has impacted the discussions his party is having.
“I think I’ve been very clear in terms of my views and vision for America that we need to have a new leadership in our party and our country,” he said. “I’ve impacted the race, in fact, I was the third one in. Since then, we’ve had 8 more jump in. I think they see the opportunity and necessity of it. So the impact has been terrific.”
Hutchinson has made it clear that the Republican party needs to move on from former President Donald Trump. In the aftermath of January 6, Hutchinson was one of the first Republicans to publicly state that Trump was responsible for the insurrection and that Republicans need to move on from him.
Hutchinson has also said that Trump’s legal troubles make him unfit to be president again. Hutchinson said the indictment by New York Prosecutor Alvin Bragg may have been politically motivated but the indictments for mishandling classified documents and involvement with January 6 have merit to them.
Later this month, the Republican National Committee (RNC) will host its presidential debates for GOP candidates. In order to qualify for the first debate, candidates must poll at at least 1% nationally. Hutchinson said he has met this requirement. He said the latest poll done by Rasmussen shows him polling at 4%.
Candidates must also meet certain requirements related to donations. Hutchinson has not met that requirement but said he is making progress. He said it can be difficult to attract donors without having a national profile, which can be difficult to build as governor of a small state.
“To put it in perspective, when I last ran as a governor of Arkansas, in which I won 65% of the vote, I had 4,000 donors. Now, I have to have 40,000, so you can see how it’s a disadvantage to a small state. But in the last 10 days, we’ve increased our donor threshold by 10,000,” Hutchinson said.
According to the Republican National Committee, candidates have until two days before the first debate on August 23 to show they had 40,000 donors contribute to their campaign. The last Arkansas politician to participate in a presidential debate was former Republican Governor Mike Huckabee in 2016.
